


F.S. Tech

by ronandhermy



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Corporate, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-06-27 03:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19782739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ronandhermy/pseuds/ronandhermy
Summary: An AU for what if FitzSimmons left the Academy, and SHIELD, in order to start their own corporation.





	F.S. Tech

They left. 

It wasn’t unheard of for people to leave the various SHIELD Academys. There were those who washed out or were forced to leave. Unable, or unwilling, to do what was required of them. But there were also those who left because they wanted to strike out on their own. Because they saw the long future of being hidden in a lab, their creations tucked away in secret corners instead of being shared with the world, and they knew they could do better. 

When Dr. Jemma Simmons and Dr. Leopold Fitz leave the Academy it is a shock and a blow. Two of the brightest minds of their age walking away from the premier spy agency in order to found their own company. It was almost insulting. No one had ever pegged those two as being of Tony Stark's ilk. But the two teenagers were adamant that they would do much better in the private sector, and so they were let go. Nothing, and no one, from SHIELD could persuade them to change their minds.

They simply left to create their own company.

Except, that wasn’t the only reason. 

A few months before they had been slated to graduate. Early, of course. Youngest ever. An agent had approached Fitz and asked probing questions. Asked things, said things, that indicated not all was as it seemed. It’s a spy agency of course there are secret. But these secrets were different, and would unlock a whole new world of exploration and potential for the people who choose to look. A select group of special people. 

Except when Fitz did look --on his own, and using his own back channels, he had been planning to be a spy after-all --he was disturbed by what he found. Expecting wonder, he found only rot. A deep, insidious rot that slithered away like smoke whenever he got too close. 

So, naturally, he brought his concerns to his best friend. A best friend who had always been more pragmatic them him. Perhaps because she dealt with the very real limitations of biology while he could create above and beyond human capabilities. There was always an end point with her work. A stopping point. Because bodies could do many wonderful things but they weren’t forever. They were fragile. Wonderful, but delicate. And Dr. Simmons knew that.

So when her best friend in the whole world --her only real friend if she’s being honest--presents the data to her in hushed worried tones. His eyes widened in fear as he tells her, “There’s something very wrong here Simmons,” in a voice strained with terror, she listens.

She looks at his data with new eyes, to what the data is pointing to, and she is the one to say they should leave. If they want to do good in the world, they can do it on their own terms. They don’t need the secrets hidden in mystery. 

Because, although she would be loath to admit it, she had never seen her friend afraid before. Nervous, yes, but never to the bone scared. Frantic with fear. Her friend was not a coward, and neither was she, but sometimes one must retreat in order to retain the high ground.

So they leave.

Finding funding is easy. It’s almost obscene how much money pours in once they’re on the open market. They set up their headquarters in Wales on a section of land with a direct rail line, a private jet stripe, and an old crumbling castle. They have several different labs and innovate projects that will revolutionize the world up and running within six months. It takes less then a year before they’re on every magazine from New York to Tokyo. 

F.S. Tech takes the world by storm. 

What does surprise them is how many cadets and low level agents follow them. It started as one or two lost or curious souls, and then a steady stream of them arrived. The scientists who ideas were sidelined because they aren’t involved with weapons or alien tech. The cadet who refused to fire a gun, but had an IQ of 175. The new recruit who looks at the hierarchical structure of secrets and cannot fathom keeping life saving knowledge from the world. They present their ideas to Fitz and Simmons like foreign subjects seeking refuge as they come before monarchs of a strange, but wonderful land. Nearly all are welcome. 

One of the scientists helps create an algorithm to help identify budding talent in the world. It’s similar to the one SHIELD uses but with one major difference. They are not looking for soldiers. They look, instead, for talent. For intelligent. For a desire to do something. Their recruitment efforts are so good that they end up stepping on SHIELD’s toes and MI6 has to get involved and for a while things are bit tense and no one can go to any science conference in the United States for a few months. But it all settles down in the end. 

Fitz and Simmons are respected and admired not just for their genius, but for their humanity. The various scientists, nearly all of them older than the young geniuses, affectionately refer to them as Mom and Dad. Never in their presence of course, but it’s a running joke in the various labs that Simmons is the hovering, affectionate mother while Fitz is the grumpy dad who will get you out of a pinch. 

There is also the running bet about when the two founders and CEOs will get together in a romantic sense. It’s all in secret of course. No one wants to have that talk with HR. But that doesn’t stop the bets from taking place. Dr. Pravati runs the betting books that has odds on dates of when romantic encounters are to occur, type of romantic encounters and who makes the first move. So far, several people have lost. They don’t bet money, but multiple shifts and cleaning duties have changed hands.

The betting pool is nearly abandoned, years after it began, until one day Fitz and Simmons show up and they’re wearing wedding rings. 

The news travels faster than an antibiotic resistant strain of cholera. It’s chaos in labs as people try to come up with excuses to see either Fitz or Simmons or both in order to get a look at their hands. Questions are asked and without hesitation Fitz proudly shows off their wedding photos. It was a small ceremony. Attended only by their families and a few close colleagues. Simmons can’t stop smiling as she tells a group of captivated biologists and their underlings about the vows. 

There is only one person to win the bet. Donnie Gill is king of the lab as he collects vacation time, project notes and baked goods as his rightful winnings. He purposely does not mention that he attended the wedding. It wouldn’t be good to breed resentment amongst his colleagues. 

Life continues on. There are stories of things happening in the world and SHIELD’s involvement. Of technology that shouldn’t be possible. Of secret societies. Of aliens. But F.S. Tech refuses to get involved with government agencies unless it is on a very limited case by case basis. They learned their lessons long ago. 

Then the news comes that part of Malta has sunk into the ocean and that Dr. Hall has been killed. No one is quite sure how it happened, or what caused it, but there are rumors of SHIELD’s involvement. Dr. McGyuer takes it especially hard. He was her thesis adviser and had been the one to encourage her to join F.S. Tech. Neither Fitz nor Simmons object when she takes a few personal weeks. Especially not when she returns with the majority of Hall’s research and a sample of an element once believed to be a bedtime story told to physicists.

When SHIELD collapses and HYDRA is revealed the world is a buzz with anger and fear. In the labs there is devastation as former friends are revealed to be monsters, former teachers are killed and there is an underlying sense of relief that they all escaped that horrible mess that seems destined to suffocate all associated with it. 

In the boardroom, Fitz and Simmons, now FitzSimmons, simply sit in silence as they watch the news. They hold each other’s hand as everything --all that hidden rot--gets revealed to the world. They don’t say anything. They don’t need to. They were right all along. 

It is surprising when a few weeks later a gaggle of former SHIELD agents show up at their front door asking for assistance. 

They meet them in the boardroom dressed in tailored suits and refusing to yield to any attempts to strong arm them. 

“Thank you for agreeing to meet with us,” Coulson says, taking their refusal to shake his hand in stride.

“We didn’t want you harassing our employees,” Fitz replies.

“This won’t take long,” Simmons supplies as Coulson and his entourage, an older Asian woman who was clearly a specialist and a young woman with a wide eye wonder about her, are slightly taken aback by the underlying hostility. 

“I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t expecting that reaction,” Coulson told them.

They said nothing, simply waiting for the presentation of information. 

It’s awkward. Coulson tells the story of his team, of SHIELD, of HYDRA, of all the little pieces in between. Neither Fitz nor Simmons seem to react to anything set before them. It is awkward to approach two people who could have been members of SHIELD but whom had left. It is awkward to ask for help from people who were half his age. But he asked anyway.

Neither Fitz nor Simmons seem impressed. 

They do not tell him that several former SHIELD scientists have flooded their labs in the past few weeks. Many of them nearly destroyed when they learned what their life’s work had been used for. Several of them fleeing for their lives. All haunted by what had happened and what they had witnessed. They had called in several full time therapists to treat the traumatized scientists. Fitz and Simmons knew the stories and their sympathies did not lie with a faceless corrupt organization, but for those seeking refuge in their labs. 

There is an awkward silence in the room.

It is interrupted by Donnie Gill knocking and then entering the room. 

“Sorry,” he says, more out of courtesy then reality, “But the Director is asking for you.”

There is an exchange of glances and Fitz leaves the room, confident that Simmons can handle the minor inconvenience of wanted government fugitives.

“The Director?” Coulson asks. None of Skye’s research had indicated that F.S. Tech has a director.

“Oh yes,” Simmons says with a knowing nod, “she’s quite particular.”

She pushes a button on the table and asks someone named Dr. Tribbons to bring in a box. 

When the woman appears May is almost taken aback that she knows the older woman. She’d vetted her for her Level 3 clearance. Now she was here, missing one eye and half the hair on her head, and apparently happy to hand over a medium sized box to her young employer and never once look over at her former colleagues. 

Simmons thanks the woman, dismisses her and then turnes her attention back to the three former SHIELD agents before her. 

“Inside this box are several pieces of tech that will prove useful to you and medical supplies for when you inevitably become injured. None of these items can or will be traced back to F. S. Tech. We are offering you this assistance on two conditions.”

The agents listen attentively. They aren't really in a position to bargain.

“One; this is a one time offer. Take what we’re offering you and that is it. If you attempt to contact us again, in any way, shape or form, we will turn you over to the relevant authorities. Two; try not to die.”

That’s it. That’s all. Coulson and May nod. Skye looks baffled but accepts the box --far heavier then it looks--but can’t stop herself from asking, “So who’s the Director?”

Simmons just gives her a look and a small smile and simply says, “That’s not relevant to your interests.”

Before they are escorted out Simmons does make one offer. To Skye. It’s an offer of a job should she tire of being a fugitive. Skye doesn’t want to admit it, but the offer is tempting. F.S. Tech has more money and resources then any company she's investigated, and they also support numerous charities and good causes. They were also clean as a whistle. 

Meanwhile, while Jemma was busy trying to prevent an international incident from occurring in their boardroom, Fitz is in an onsite nursery soothing a fussy toddler. She was small, and clever, and currently very, very grumpy about waking up early from her nap. Only her father could soothe the savage beast with a cuddle and a promise of story time. 

It was a running joke that the smallest FitzSimmons was the Director of the company, because she directed her parents --the co-CEOs--with her fussing. 

Perhaps in another world Dr. Leopold Fitz and Dr. Jemma Simmons would have jumped at the chance to join an adventure. To take on the bad guys and explore uncharted territories of space and time. But they had responsibilities. They had their company and their many employees to think of. They had their work. And most importantly, they had their own family to consider. A little girl who needed her parents, not more dead heroes.

So this time, they stayed.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone. I realize it has been 2 years or so since I've posted anything new, so I hope you enjoy this one shot. Cheers.


End file.
